BRUSSELS, April 3 (Reuters) - EU regulators have noted

Microsoft's ( MSFT ) hiring of most of artificial intelligence

startup Inflection's staff including its co-founders and may act

if other companies act similarly, making it a trend, EU

antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said on Wednesday.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) last month hired co-founders Mustafa Suleyman and

Karen Simonyan and most of Inflection's 70-strong team for a

newly created unit called Microsoft AI, as the U.S. software

giant consolidates and expands its AI offerings for consumer

products.

The move triggered criticism from rivals as the talent and

technology transfer meant Microsoft ( MSFT ) avoided the regulatory

scrutiny that comes with a traditional acquisition.

Vestager said she was following developments.

"It is the kind of thing on which we keep an eye but as you

say, since it is not a merger it is not caught by merger rules,"

she told reporters.

"We might (look into it) but we have no decisions, neither

to do something or not do something. We have registered that

this is happening and also registering that it's happening in a

way so that it escapes our scrutiny from our usual boxes," she

said.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) declined to comment.

There could be concerns if other companies follow suit,

Vestager added.

"Of course if things become a trend and if that trend seems

to be something that circumvents what has been put in place to

preserve competition, which is merger rules, of course that

could be restored and eventually corrected," Vestager said.